Barnes Nobles Nook didnt have a very happy holidays. The decline in Nook hardware sales seems to have led to a sizable decline in sales of ebooks and other media too, with Barnes Nobles digital content sales falling 27.3 percent year-over-year. Thats a series of troubling numbers for Barnes Noble and its Nook division, the sales of which have long been declining. Barnes Noble as a whole wasnt hit so bad though — excluding the Nook unit, its core bookstore sales only declined .2 percent.